Global terrorism, which has been steadily and significantly increasing, has created an urgent need for more effective and rapidly deployable means of protecting military and civilian personnel and a wide variety of government, commercial and private sector structures or other assets. This is particularly true in war zones where serious injury or death of military and civilian personnel can result from weapons that can include, but are not limited to: improvised explosive devices (IEDs); mortar/rocket propelled grenades (RPGs); small arms fire; and shrapnel from blasts against various structures such as concrete walls. Examples of military applications for such effective and rapidly deployable protection can include: base camps; soldier fighting positions; command posts; check point security; perimeter security and revetments around military assets, for example, aircraft; as well as temporary structural repairs. Examples of government and private sector applications of effective and rapidly deployable protection, in view of potential terrorist attacks or natural disasters such as hurricanes, can include government or commercial buildings, flood mitigation, disaster relief walls and shelters, and historic landmarks.
Known means of protection against hostile forces in war zones, as well as terrorist attacks and natural disasters include walls or revetments constructed of sandbags. Although effective in some instances, construction of such walls or revetments can be very labor intensive and they can become unstable over time. Also, in most cases the walls or revetments are not suitable for supporting additional structures. Further, the choice of ballast material that can be used is somewhat limited and the walls or revetments can be time consuming to disassemble.
Other conventional devices used to provide protection against various similar threats include walls constructed of baskets that are made from galvanized steel wire mesh. The interior of the grid-like baskets can be lined with water permeable, geotextile felt material to retain relatively smaller ballast material such as gravel, sand and fines. Such baskets are typically relatively large and often require the use of heavy earth moving equipment and a skilled labor force at the site.